The PRovoke Media Podcast

In a session from the PRovoke18 Global PR Summit, the CEO of the world's largest PR firm is interviewed by Holmes Report editor-in-chief Arun Sudhaman about the state of today's PR industry. In an expansive and honest conversation, Edelman talks through the cultural challenges facing his agency, opportunities for growth and why transformation is required if today's PR firms are to compete with advertising shops for CMO budgets. 

Adam Mack, the UK CEO of W tells the Echo Chamber what it takes to be an agile agency. Mack joined W founder Warren Johnson at the agency in January this year after leaving Weber Shandwick, where he was chief strategy officer for EMEA for six years. He also spent time at Freuds as director of strategy. He joins the Echo Chamber to talk about what business buzzword “agility” means in the context of PR agencies.

Holmes Report editors Paul Holmes & Arun Sudhaman discuss the controversy surrounding Facebook's work with public affairs firm Definers. After that, Sudhaman is joined by Maja Pawinska Sims to talk more corporate crises, in the shape of Nissan and D&G. The duo also explore Iceland's banned TV ad, the latest Global Creative Index and more. 

Former Edelman EMEA CEO (and Echo Chamber co-host) Robert Phillips rejoins the podcast to discuss the current political era and what it means for companies and their leadership. Phillips, who now heads Jericho Chambers, also explores the Responsible Tax Project that his firm is running in conjunction with KPMG, and explores why public relations still needs a significant overhaul. Institute of PR president and CEO Tina McCorkindale then joins the show to discuss the latest PR trends, including purpose, gender equality and behavioural science. 

Nik Govier has launched her latest venture after leaving Unity, the agency she co-founded in 2005, at the end of last year. She joins the Echo Chamber with her fellow founding partners, Katy Stolliday – a board director at Unity before a stint as Brands2Life’s deputy MD consumer – and Stuart Lambert, until recently the strategy and creative director at Weber Shandwick, to talk about setting up a new kind of agency for “a Blurred world”.

Frank’s joint managing partners Andrew Bloch and Alex Grier join the Echo Chamber to look back at how the agency has evolved in its first 18 years, their trademarked 'talkability' proposition, what creativity means now, and the best brand campaigns. NB: At the time of recording, Frank declined to comment on the BrewDog/Scofflaw case.

Richard Shotton, is head of behavioural science at Manning Gottlieb OMD. He published “The Choice Factory” – described by Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland as “a Haynes Manual for understanding consumer behaviour” – earlier this year, outlining 25 common biases that affect consumer behaviour in terms of their responsiveness to brand messages and advertising. He joins us in the Echo Chamber to look at how behavioural science is relevant to PR and communications.

Echo Chamber editors Arun Sudhaman, Maja Pawinska Sims and Paul Holmes review some of the key news stories from the past few weeks, including the mergers of Text100/Bite and Kekst CNC, new leadership at H+K Strategies, Nike's Colin Kaepernick campaign, the one-year anniversary of Bell Pottinger's closure and much more, while also previewing next week's PRovoke18 Global PR Summit.

Jon Tipple, chief strategy officer worldwide at FutureBrand, joins the Echo Chamber to look at the findings of the consultancy’s annual index of how “futureproof” the world’s top companies are. Tipple joined the Ogilvy & Mather graduate scheme and has since worked at agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, FCB and McCann before joining FutureBrand in 2012. Along the way, he’s worked with brands including the London Olympic Games, Red Bull, Microsoft, Nestle, Virgin, Bacardi and the BBC, and won rafts of industry awards.

Former New York City and Metropolitan Museum of Art chief digital officer Sree Sreenivasan joins the Echo Chamber podcast to discuss the latest trends and pitfalls when it comes to social media. Recorded at the PRAXIS7 conference in Hyderabad, Sreenivasan explores the thorny topics of vanity metrics and influencer marketing, the continued underestimation of LinkedIn, CEOs on Twittter and the rise of fake news.